South Sudan's Cabinet Earmarks U.S. $92 Million for 2014 Census

Juba — South Sudan's government has approved $92m to facilitate the process for the upcoming 2014 population census that will be conducted prior to the general elections in 2015.

The money was approved per the request presented to the cabinet by the chairperson of the National Bureau of Statistics, Isaiah Chol Aruai, on Friday.

The fresh census will be the first of its kind since South Sudan split from the former Sudan and became independent in July 2011.

The then semi-autonomous region conducted a population and housing census in 2008 under the former Sudan but the 8.3 million population result was contested and rejected by officials in South Sudan who said some areas were not covered by enumerators.

Also a good number of South Sudanese have returned home from the Diaspora after the conduct of the last census.

The 2014 exercise is a constitutional requirement in the new nation as it will be used to determine the number of constituencies that will be contested in the elections.

An accurate population figure will also be used to guide government's plans in service delivery based on a correct population of people in a given area.

The 450-member Juba parliament is currently composed of members elected by South Sudan's constituencies during the 2010 elections plus those that were elected to the then national parliament in Khartoum and later absorbed into the new country's parliament after the split.

The 2008 census also did not include ethnicity in the questionnaire which was demanded by the then South[ern] Sudan in order to know the population of each community in the ethnically diverse country.

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